Improvement in corsets



HARRIET a. EMERY.

Corset.

' Patentedlunehl87'5.

THE GRAPHIC C0.PHOT0 LIT .39 41 PARK PLACE,N.Y.

UNITE STATES PATENT FFIGE;

HARRIET G. EMERY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT I N CORSETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 163,983, dated J une l, 1875; application filed October 27, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRIET G. EMERY, of the city of Boston and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Corsets; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it. v

The corset forming the subject of the present application is, in some of its parts not herein claimed, made upon the general principles as set forth in the Patent No. 124,891, reissued May 7, 1872, No. 4,891, having the shoulder-socket and the bifurcated strap for holding up the under drawers, or the under drawers and stockings, if desired, as set forth in that patent. The corset described in that patent was especially designed for children. My present improvements are intended to adapt the corset to the developed female form; and to this end my improvements relate, first, to adapting and fitting the waist by means of openings at each side of the corset of a lanceolated elliptic form, and which openings are directly under the arms, and provided with appropriate lacings, to permit the contraction or enlargement of such openings to suit the figure of the wearer, these openings being preferably closed at the top near the shoulder, but left unclosed or disconnected at the bottom and below the lower line of the waist, as more particularly hereinafter described; secondly, to forming the lower portions of the parts thus laced together at the sides with salient or prominent curves, whose extremities make acute angles with the lower or base line of the corset, to accommodate themselves to the different developments of the hips, so that when the corset is laced to fit a very fully-developed hip there shall be little or no open space or gap between these hip-covering and unlaced parts, thus affording an interposed portion of the corset between the under garment and the garments outside the corset, however much the lacings may be tightened up or loosened; thirdly, to a peculiar construction, whereby the requisite contour and swell are given for a developed bust, and to other details hereinafter named.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a corset illustrating my improvements. Fig. 2 is a side view of the same; Fig. 3, a plan of a middle section of the front, showing its contour before it has been united to its adjacent part, and also showing the form of a piece cut out from the same, to be afterward stitched together to aid in giving the proper swell for the bust; and Fig. 4 shows the same part after this lanceolated opening has been sewed up, and also the adjacent part of the front, to

which this part is to be united by a seam.

The back of the corset is closed and the front is left open at the center line, at which line it is hooked or buttoned together by any well-known or appropriate fastening devices, as in the line a b, Figs. 1,3, and 4. The lanceolated side openings are formed by the junction of the curved line 0 d of one of the front sections, as shown in Fig. 4, and a similar curve of the back piece, as shown at e f in Fig. 2. These curved parts are united together just beneath the armpits, as seen at 9; but below that point they are separate and left free to be drawn together to any desired degree by means of the lacings h, whichcontinue to the commencement of the swell of the hips, and there terminate, the spreading part below the hips formed by the acute-angled portion 6 being left free to overlap, as shown in Fig. 2, for small hips, or to be spread out by larger hips to any degree up to the fullest extent, as shown in Fig. l, in which they do not overlap. i

The curve 0 d may be made more or less decided, at option 5 but for almost all figures, in a corset of a given breadth at the shoulders the range of adjustment shown in the drawings will allow a perfect adaptation of the corset to the figure. The openings under the arms divide the garment about equally at the base of the waist, and insure the preserving of the proper proportions of the front and back relatively to each other under all movements of the person and expansions and contractions of the hip portion of the garment, and which could not be the case if the openings were placed materially forward or backward of the sides of the person, because the unlaced lower portions would not then assure their proper positions on the hips.

shown in the line 0 12, Figs. 3 and 4, this cut,

as shown, receding at the fullest part of the swell toward the top line of the corset, rounding inward to the body, and giving to it the contour of the form from the waist to the neck; this swell and hollow being made more intense in order to give ample space for a full "bust, by first cutting out from each piece or part is l a vertical piece, as shown at q, Fig. 3, of a lanceolate ellipse form, and then scaming together the sides of this ellipse, as shown at r r in the other figures. No gores are inserted in this or any other part of the corset. No whalebones or similar stiffeners are used, which areso inconvenient to the wearer, and which also hasten the wearing out of the corset; but instead thereof, as a means of giving as much stifl'ness as is required and yet preserving vflexibility and an easy fit, with but little restraint upon the free movements of the wearer, and all with economy, I use cotton or kindred cord, very hard-twisted, for the purpose, and in these parts where stiffening is desirable I firmly stitch into the fabric, between two pieces, three, four, or more lengths,

closely contiguous to each other, as shown at the several places marked .9 s.

The seam m m, which unites the parts k 2, and whereby the front of the corset is adapted to the developedfemale bust, is in a line drawn from top to bottom, passing over the center and highest part of each breast. This insures the greatest fullness where it is most needed.

What I claim as my invention in corsets is-- 1. The elliptic sideopenings under the arm, closed at the top and unclosed atthe bottom,

and provided with a lacing for adjusting the same, substantially as shown and described.

2. In connection with the side openings under the arm, and with their adjusting-lacings, the flaring parts M, arranged to overlap, as shown and described, or to meet without overlapping, as shown in Fig. 1, and for the purposes set forth.

3. The combination of the seams r 1', made as described, with the elliptic side openings and their lacings.

4. The combination of the contracted scams 7' 7', made as described, with the seams m m, extending vertically over the center and hi ghest point of the breast.

HARRIET Gr. EMERY. V

Witnesses:

JOHN J. HALSTED, GEo. T. SMALLWOOD. 

